Clinton's charter school comments prompt boos at teachers union event

Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said traditional public schools and charter schools should share ideas — a remark met with boos by delegates from the National Education Association’s representative assembly.

To the thousands of teachers gathered at the labor union’s annual conference, Clinton said “when schools get it right, whether they are traditional public schools or public charter schools, let’s figure out what’s working ... and share it with schools across America.”

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Some teachers in the audience booed.

Clinton continued to preach cooperation.

“We can do that,” she said. “We’ve got no time for all of these education wars.”

The presidential hopeful won back the crowd by making a distinction between charter schools in general, and those schools run by for-profit companies. Clinton said people on the outside are pushing “for-profit charter schools on our kids.”

“We will never stand for that. That is not acceptable,” Clinton said to cheers.

At some charter schools, however, the distinction between for-profit and nonprofit status is murky. A school may be nonprofit, but it can hire a for-profit management company, which can be run by the same people as the nonprofit.

The Clintons are longtime charter school supporters, but charters are opposed by many teachers union members. Clinton was endorsed in October by the NEA — at a critical time in the Democratic primary. But Clinton’s support for charters has created some unease among rank-and-file union members, some of whom view charter schools as a threat to the survival of traditional schools. Soon after Clinton received the NEA endorsement last fall, Clinton surprised charter school backers when she criticized charter schools that "don't take the hardest-to-teach kids, or, if they do, they don't keep them.”

Charter schools are publicly funded, but they don’t have to follow all of the same rules as traditional public schools. With a nationwide enrollment of more than 2.5 million students, charters have become especially popular in urban areas.

Many Republican politicians wholeheartedly support charter schools. But even as President Barack Obama’s administration has backed them, Democrats are more divided as to whether charters are good for public education.

The NEA is the nation’s largest labor union, and it endorsed Clinton as Bernie Sanders was gaining momentum and Vice President Joe Biden was considering a bid for the White House. The move defied many state affiliates that wanted the union to hold off on the endorsement.

After Tuesday's speech, NEA President Lily Eskelsen Garcia noted that some delegates in attendance actually work at charter schools. But she said that many charters have strayed from their initial purpose to be incubators of learning.

"For us, the anger comes from the growing franchise for-profit charter schools," Eskelsen Garcia said. "When they move in, they devastate the local school district.”

About 7,500 NEA delegates from around the country are attending the NEA’s representative assembly in Washington. Delegates are educators from both K-12 and higher education, and include education support staff.

Both the NEA and the other major teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, were early endorsers of Clinton.